The Scripture Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the Modern Age? – Al Mohler

AlbertMohler.com – Dragged Kicking and Screaming into the Modern Age? Lessons from Piers Morgan’s Interview with Joel Osteen.

 

In his latest commentary on contemporary culture and modern evangelicalism, Dr.Al Mohler posts some important thoughts on the interview Piers Morgan (of “America’s Got Talent” fame) held this past Wednesday night with popular “preacher” (happiness therapist?) and author Joel Osteen and his wife. This too is a window to the “soul” of America, and it is a sick soul that is revealed. I will quote a few paragraphs and urge you to read the rest at the link above. And as we close out this week and look forward to worshiping the Lord and hearing the gospel of salvation in Christ alone tomorrow, let us give thanks for our faithful ministers of the Word. As they proclaim the truth, they give us the real glad tidings which we sinners need. They are the true messengers of joy.

 

An interview that begins with a statement like, “Well, Piers, to me, faith is all about learning to be happy where you are,” is probably not going to end well. Piers Morgan’s interview with Joel and Victoria Osteen last night was very revealing about the Osteens — but little Christian truth was revealed. At the same time, the interview deserves closer attention than you might expect.

After introducing the Osteens, Morgan let Joel talk about his latest book, Every Day’s A Friday, How To Be Happier Seven Days a Week. Like the book itself, Joel’s presentation could be reduced to his own brand of highly therapeutic prosperity theology. For Joel Osteen, it’s not a theology that is reducible to money alone. Instead, his focus is more on individual happiness and self-fulfillment. In his rendering, God might not want everyone to be rich, but he does want his creatures to experience every day as .  . . a Friday?

…Oh, one final and very significant statement from the interview demands attention. Piers Morgan looked at Joel Osteen and asked the million-dollar question:

But, I mean, shouldn’t the scripture be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age. I mean, we were talking before the break about the issue about eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, not everything in the scriptures, really, is, in my view, conducive to modern life. I mean, like everything else, doesn’t it have to move with the times and isn’t it down again to people like you to interpret it in a way that evolves when you’re known as a very progressive preacher?

Shouldn’t the Bible be “dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age?” There you have the modernist worldview reduced to a single question. The Bible will simply have to give way to modern moral authorities, and have to be interpreted “in a way that evolves.”

Steve Jobs’ Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity – Yahoo! News

Steve Jobs’ Mantra Rooted in Buddhism: Focus and Simplicity – Yahoo! News.

 

We have heard much this week about the passing of Apple’s founder and leader, Steve Jobs. Famous, of course, for all the innovations he brought to the computer and tech world – from the Mac PC to the iPod, iPhone and iPad. What you may not have know, however, is that Jobs also brought an unconventional religious aspect to the table in developing the products he did – Zen Buddhism. Yes, Jobs was a “spiritual” man, involved in the false teachings of Eastern religions! Many praise him for the innovator that he was, and there is no question that his Apple products gave us as Christians many useful things of benefit to the kingdom of God. But Job’s “spirituality” is also a window into the soul of our modern culture. And lest we forget, ideas – including those rooted in religion! – always have consequences. Calvin was right when he called the heart of fallen man an “idol factory”. Jobs had idols in his heart, and therefore in his mind and hands, as all of us do by nature. Is it not understandable then that his tech products have also become idols in the lives of so many? The only way to escape such idolatry is faith in the true God, Jehovah, the God of the Scriptures, and in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. May we never forget.

 

Below is a portion of this fascinating look at Job’s religion and how it impacted his work at Apple. You may read the full story at the link above.

 

Long before Steve Jobs became the CEO of Apple and one of the most recognizable figures on the planet, he took a unconventional route to find himself — a spiritual journey that influenced every step of an unconventional career.

Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56 of pancreatic cancer, was the biological child of two unmarried academics who only consented to signing the papers if the adoptive parents sent him to college.

His adoptive parents sent a young Jobs off to Reed College, an expensive liberal arts school in Oregon, but he dropped out and went to India in the 1973 in search of enlightenment.

Jobs and his college friend Daniel Kottke, who later worked for him at Apple, visited Neem Karoli Baba at his Kainchi Ashram. He returned home to California a Buddhist, complete with a shaved head and traditional Indian clothing and a philosophy that may have shaped much of his corporate values.

…Jobs used Dalai Lama in one of Apple’s most famous ad campaigns: “Think Different.”

“He put them up all over Hong Kong,” Thurman said of the computer ads. “But then the Chinese communists squawked very violently and as my son says, ‘He had to think again.’”

Zen Buddhist monk Kobun Chino Otogawa married Jobs and his now widow, Laurene Powell, in 1991.

Jobs could have just as easily taken his philosophy from the hippie movement of the 1960s. The Whole Earth Catalogue was his bible, with founder Stewart Brand’s cry, “We are as gods.”

The catalogue offered an integrated and complex world view with a leftist political calling. Jobs later adopted the catalogue’s mantra: “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

…The catalogue also delved into spirituality. In one 1974 article, author Rick Fields wrote that Buddhism is “a tool, like an alarm-clock for waking up.”

That may have been the case for Jobs. He said in his now-famous 2005 Commencement speech at Stanford that he lived each day as if it were his last, admonishing graduates not to “live someone else’s life.”

“Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking,” Jobs said. “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.”